Gates Foundation has spent $250M on journalism (opens in new tab)

Is paying people to write favorable stories "journalism" or "propaganda"? Did we just formally merge those two in 1968 and I just missed the announcement?

This reminds me of when the Bill Gates' foundation had The Guardian publish a piece originally titled "Child labour doesn’t have to be exploitation – it gave me life skills" [0], a title they later had to change. It appalls me that it's still online.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/nov/06/c...

I believe anytime you spend $250 million, the results, whether good or bad, should be clearly visible. In this case Gates could have burned the money and there would have been roughly the same results.

I hope people don’t forget yellow journalism with William Randolph Hearst.

Marijuana was highly scrutinized in his publications because hemp (relative to marijuana) competed with his paper mills that he owned.

Low and behold, marijuana and hemp become illegal to grow in the United States because of the fear of people getting high.

Wasn't it admitted that a major goal of Bill Gates was to be awarded a Nobel Peace prize? It came up from stories surrounding Epstein and why was Bill Gates in contact with him - for his influence, against the advise of his lawyers. I wouldn't be surprised $250M is part of that desire.

“Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” - Ecclesiastes 1:2

Perhaps spending money to influence thought would have been better spent on true charity.